The company specializes in Linux-based VPS, dedicated, and managed hosting plans, but also offers shared WordPress plans and account access via cPanel.
Its operations remain mainly in the US, with three state-of-the-art data centers in Washington state, Maryland, and Texas.
If high-performance matters more to you than cost, KnownHost may be worth considering.
KnownHost Pros and Cons
Pros
- High-End Hosting - KnownHost offers high performance virtual private servers and dedicated server hosting.
- Technical Details Handled - If you are not tech-savvy, do not worry, KnownHost offers fully managed hosting plans.
- Knowledgebase - The company offers an active forum, wiki, and blog to help you grow your knowledge and troubleshoot.
- Customer Support - KnownHost is staffed 24/7 and usually respond to support requests in less than 10 minutes.
Cons
- Linux Only - KnownHost only offers Linux-only hosting and does not support Windows.
- Fee for Backup - The company charges a $10 fee to restore a backup of a specific domain.
KnownHost Prices and Payment Methods
KnownHost offers three shared cloud hosting types – Basic, Standard, and Professional.
- The discounted costs range from $3.47 to $9.97 per month when locked into a 3-year contract.
- With the top-tier Professional plan, unmetered resources are offered, whilst the Basic and Standard plans only offer unlimited bandwidth, and limitations in other resources like storage, databases, and domains.
The company also offers two WordPress hosting plans.
- The least expensive plan is $5.97 per month, offering 50 GB of storage and support for up to 100,000 visitors. However, you can only host one website on these WP plans.
Finally, dedicated CPU Server plans from KnownHost are available built on Inteli7 and Xeon processors. Four plans are offered but note that setup fees range from $49 to $129.
Payment methods include major credit cards and PayPal, the company does not accept Bitcoin.
KnownHost User Experience
KnownHost’s homepage immediately presents you with an abundance of information. Digging deeper, however, you will find the hosting provider is geared towards people with technical knowledge, which may present problems to those new to hosting.
The company offers both Web & WordPress hosting at fair price points using cPanel and DirectAdmin for their main control panel. Softaculous allows you to easily install 400+ applications with one click, however.
KnownHost Load Times & Reliability
With its fully managed plans, HTTP/2 enabled servers, and remote access through Git and SSH/SFTP, KnownHost aims for high-performance loading sites. Using VPN technology, we recorded an average aggregate load time of 134.59ms. This eclipses the recommended two-second standard load time recommended by Google.
While its VPS, both standard and SSD-powered, offered a solid 99.96% uptime.
KnownHost Main Features
Raid Storage
All data centers are fully redundant, with RAID 10 failover mirroring for every server and high levels of physical security.
LiteSpeed Web Server
KnownHost uses LiteSpeed webserver software which is used by 6.4% of websites in 2020.
Free Migration
KnownHost offers free migration from your old web host.
Uptime Guarantee
The company gives a 99.99% uptime guarantee for all hosting plans.
KnownHost Customer Support
KnownHost’s customer service is available via email and help desk 24/7, however, the department uses a ticketing system. The company’s phone lines are open from 7 am to 7 pm and are mainly reserved for sales and billing inquiries.
The company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
KnownHost For Free
KnownHost does not provide any free trial option.
My Conclusion About KnownHost
KnownHost provides excellent high-end hosting with its managed VPS and managed dedicated server plans.
However, it only supports Linux-based VPS, so if you are looking for Windows-based, you may need to look elsewhere e.g. LiquidWeb.
The company does offer good value with its lower-level shared, reseller, and WordPress plans, although its basic hosting plans do come with storage limitations, unlike Fastcomet with its larger capacity.
While its customer support is 24/7, some users may be put off by the ticket-based system, compared to Verpex, that offers immediate live chat support.
